This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 21 December 2005

The following BSI references relate to the work on this British Standard:

Committee reference MS/4
Draft for comment 05/30106092 DC

Committees responsible for this British Standard

The preparation of this British Standard was entrusted to Technical Committee MS/4, Design management systems, upon which the following bodies were represented:

Association for Project Management
Association of Innovation Management
Association of MBAS
British Standards Society
Business Link Lancashire
Design Council
DTI — Design and Policy Services
Engineering Industries Association
Federation of Small Businesses
Institute of Quality Assurance
Institution of Electrical Engineers
Institution of Engineering
Designers Institution of Mechanical Engineers
MoD — UK Defence Standardization
NAFEMS
Royal Institute of British Architects
University of Glasgow
University of Manchester
Co-opted members

Foreword

This part of BS 7373 has been prepared by Technical Committee MS/4 and its Panel MS/4/-/7.

BS 7373 consists of the following parts:

Part 1: Guide to preparation;
Part 2: Guide to identifying criteria for a product specification and to declaring product conformity;
Part 3: Guide to identifying criteria for specifying a service offering

BS 7373‑2 was devised in response to a demand from small businesses for a guide to assist them in preparing a specification for their product, and which would enable them to declare conformity of the product to its specification. Following the success of BS 7373‑2, there was a corresponding demand from the service sector for a guide to preparing a specification for a service.

The example in 4.2 has been reproduced by kind permission of Pearson Education Ltd from: JOHNSON, R. and CLARK, G., Service operations management. Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2001.

Attention is drawn to a number of sector-specific British Standards relating to services. Refer to the Bibliography for the complete list.

This publication does not purport to include all the necessary provisions of a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard does not of itself confer immunity from legal obligations.

Summary of pages

This document comprises a front cover, an inside front cover, pages i to iii, a blank page, pages 1 to 30, an inside back cover and a back cover.

The BSI copyright notice displayed in this document indicates when the document was last issued.

Introduction

While the provisions of this standard have been prepared with small- to medium-sized businesses in mind they are equally applicable to larger organizations. This guide is aimed at those responsible for specifying the new service that the organization is planning to offer.

The service content of many product offerings has increased. No longer is there such a clear distinction between traditional manufacturing industry and the service sector. Manufacturers who were once very product oriented now consider the service perspective of their operations to be more important, including customer relationship management and key account management.

Despite this blurring between manufacturing and service provision, there are still some characteristics that services are more likely to exhibit, such as the following:

They can be abstract, intangible.
They are impossible to keep in stock.
They can be produced, delivered, consumed and marketed all at the same time.
They usually require the consumer to actively participate in the process.
Consumer and employee interaction can significantly affect the outcome.
They can be performed/delivered in the field away from the controlled company environment.
The outcome for the consumer is the experience of the process — there may or may not be a tangible result.
It can be difficult to measure this outcome.

The purpose of this guide is to ensure sufficient attention is given to acquiring data in all the areas necessary to produce an adequate specification for the service offering.

1 Scope

This British Standard gives guidance on identifying the criteria necessary for producing a specification for a service. The service that is the subject of the specification might be complete in its own right or be a component of a larger service, e.g. an airline service or the catering service component.

NOTE 1 This standard deals with the core features of the service and does not directly tackle some ethical aspects such as high-pressure selling/marketing, misleading advertisements, advertising aimed at children or corporate social responsibility.

NOTE 2 Guidance relating to meeting legislative and statutory requirements, e.g. health and safety, liability, employment law, etc. (see Annex G and Bibliography) is not comprehensive and reference should be made to other sources of information as appropriate.

2 Terms and definitions

3 Rationale for preparing a specification

3.1 Overview

3.2 The service process

3.3 Commercial considerations

3.4 Technical and infrastructure considerations

3.5 Consumer expectation considerations

3.6 Regulatory and ethical considerations

4 Identifying the criteria

4.1 Overview of the criteria to be gathered

4.2 Researching and understanding consumer needs and expectations

4.3 Understanding the characteristics of the service offering

4.4 Researching and understanding the market

4.5 Devising the infrastructure and identifying legislation and standards

4.6 Understanding requirements for marketing and selling

4.7 Understanding the operation and delivery of the service

4.8 Understanding the outcome of providing the service

4.9 Understanding the exit strategy or termination of the service

5 Recording the criteria and writing the specification

5.1 General

5.2 Some practical tips for writing the specification

5.3 Use of the specification template

6 Reviewing the criteria

7 Verifying the service offering against chosen criteria

7.1 General

7.2 Preparing a verification plan

7.3 Verifying the service and producing a verification record

7.4 Declaration of conformity

8 Service Level Agreement (SLA)

8.1 General

8.2 Purpose of an SLA

8.3 Contents of the SLA

Bibliography

BS 7373-3:2005

Product specifications - Guide to identifying criteria for specifying a service offering

Current

Published:

21 Dec 2005